Validating the identity of an application for application management

ABSTRACT

A method of managing access to enterprise resources is provided. An access manager may operate at a mobile device to validate a mobile application installed at that mobile device. If the access manager does not successfully validate the mobile application, the access manager may prevent the mobile application from accessing computing resource. If the access manager does successfully validate the mobile application, then the access manager may identify the mobile application as a trusted mobile application. The access manager may thus permit the trusted mobile application to access the computing resource.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/898,167, entitled “Validating the Identity of a Mobile Applicationfor Mobile Application Management” and filed on May 20, 2013, whichclaims priority to U.S. Provisional Pat. App. No. 61/806,557 entitled“Systems and Methods for Enterprise Mobility Management” and filed onMar. 29, 2013, each of which is incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects described herein generally relate to management of mobileapplications at mobile computing devices. More specifically, variousaspects provide approaches to validating a mobile application operatingat an unmanaged device and controlling execution of that mobileapplication.

BACKGROUND

The use of mobile computing devices continues to grow. In particular,business and other enterprises have come to rely on mobile computingdevices to allow individuals to remotely access various computingresources. Such resources may include, for example, electronic mailservices, file services, data, and other electronic resources providedby the computer systems of an enterprise or the mobile device itself.

Whether an individual is located locally or remotely relative tocomputing resources, an enterprise may seek to protect and controlaccess to those resources. Accordingly, an enterprise may implementvarious technological mechanisms (e.g., gateways and firewalls) as wellas access control mechanisms (e.g., user authentication andauthorization) in order to ensure an individual can only access theresources that individual is authorized and entitled to access. Suchmechanisms may also prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing anyof the computing resources.

With respect to mobile devices, an enterprise may employ variousapproaches to control remote access to computing resources from thosemobile devices. This endeavor may be referred to as mobile devicemanagement. In one approach, an enterprise may provide an individualwith a company-owned and company-controlled mobile device. Such a devicemay be configured such that the enterprise has control over theconfiguration, functionality, operation, and data of the mobile device.In this regard, the company-controlled mobile device may be referred toas a managed device. The enterprise may remotely control the manageddevice via, e.g., a client-server architecture. An enterprise server mayremotely issue commands to a client application residing at the manageddevice. Such commands may include, e.g., installing new applications orfunctionality, updating existing applications or functionality, updatingconfiguration settings, providing data, and so forth. If the manageddevice is lost or stolen, the enterprise may issue commands to lock orwipe the device in order to prevent an unauthorized individual fromgaining access to the device or from gaining access to the resources viathe device.

Individuals, however, may find it inconvenient to maintain both acompany-owned mobile device as well as a personal mobile device.Instead, individuals may prefer to access the resources from theirpersonal mobile devices. This practice may be referred to as BYOD,bring-your-own-device. Because these personal devices may not becompany-controlled, such personal devices may be referred to asunmanaged devices. To accommodate this preference, solutions to allowunmanaged devices to access these resources are currently indevelopment.

For example, providing a company-controlled mobile application, amanaged mobile application, that is configured to operate at anunmanaged device is one approach currently in development. However,challenges remain. For managed mobile applications operating on anunmanaged device to be a viable approach, mechanisms to preventunauthorized access to or use of resources via the managed mobileapplication may be needed. In particular, there exists a need tovalidate the identity of a managed mobile application to ensure themanaged mobile application has been altered to circumvent the securitymechanisms that protect the resources. In addition, there exists a needto control the operation of the managed mobile application at theunmanaged mobile device.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of various aspects describedherein. This summary is not an extensive overview, and is not intendedto identify key or critical elements or to delineate the scope of theclaims. The following summary merely presents some concepts in asimplified form as an introductory prelude to the more detaileddescription provided below.

To overcome limitations in the prior art described above, and toovercome other limitations that will be apparent upon reading andunderstanding the present specification, aspects described herein aredirected towards controlling access to remote computing resourceslocated at an enterprise computing system using managed mobileapplications at mobile computing devices. In addition, aspects of thepresent disclosure are directed towards controlling access to localcomputing resources at the mobile computing devices themselves. Anaccess manager may perform a validation process that determines whethera mobile application requesting access to computing resources hasaccurately identified itself and has not been subsequently altered afterinstallation at the mobile computing device. In this way, the accessmanager may ensure the mobile application requesting access to thecomputing resource can be trusted and is not attempting to circumventthe security mechanisms used to protect those resources. As a result,individuals associated with the enterprise may advantageously utilizeremote and local computing resources with their personal mobile devices.

A first aspect described herein provides a method of managing access tocomputing resources. An access manager may operate at a mobile device tovalidate a mobile application installed at that mobile device. If theaccess manager does not successfully validate the mobile application,the access manager may prevent the mobile application from accessing acomputing resource. If the access manager does successfully validate themobile application, then the access manager may identify the mobileapplication as a trusted mobile application. The access manager may thuspermit the trusted mobile application to access the computing resource.

A second aspect described herein provides a mobile computing device. Themobile computing device may include a mobile application configured toaccess a computing resource, stored identification informationassociated with the mobile application, and an access manager. Theaccess manager may be configured to validate the mobile application andprevent or permit access to the computing resource as described above.

A third aspect described herein provides an access manager configured tooperate at a mobile device. The access manager may also be configured tovalidate a mobile application at the mobile device and prevent or permitaccess to a computing resource via the mobile application as describedabove. The access manager may further be configured to control operationof the mobile application based on an application policy stored at themobile application.

Some aspects described herein provide that the stored identificationinformation may be an original digital certificate associated andcreated along with the mobile application. The access manager mayvalidate the mobile application by comparing the original digitalcertificate created for the mobile application with a digitalcertificate received from a mobile operating system at the mobilecomputing device. The computing resources may be located locally orremotely relative to the mobile computing device. Examples of computingresources include a software application operating at the mobilecomputing device or a remote computing system, a service provided by themobile computing device or a remote computing system, data stored at themobile computing device or the remote computing system, hardware at themobile computing device or the remote computing system, and combinationsof such.

The stored identification information may also be identification tokensembedded into the mobile application upon creation or derived from themobile application. An application signature may be constructed based onan arrangement of the embedded and derive identification tokens. Theaccess manager may also provide the mobile application with a nonceduring validation, and use the nonce to compute an expected hash valueusing the application signature and the nonce. The access manager maygenerate an expected response, e.g., an expected hash value, and comparethe expected response to a response received from the mobile applicationfollowing a challenge from the access manager.

These and additional aspects will be appreciated with the benefit of thedisclosures discussed in further detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of aspects described herein and theadvantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the followingdescription in consideration of the accompanying drawings, in which likereference numbers indicate like features, and wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative computer system architecture that may beused in accordance with one or more illustrative aspects describedherein.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative remote-access system architecture thatmay be used in accordance with one or more illustrative aspectsdescribed herein.

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative virtualized (hypervisor) systemarchitecture that may be used in accordance with one or moreillustrative aspects described herein.

FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative cloud-based system architecture that maybe used in accordance with one or more illustrative aspects describedherein.

FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative enterprise mobility management system.

FIG. 6 depicts another illustrative enterprise mobility managementsystem.

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative mobile device management system.

FIG. 8 depicts a block diagram of an illustrative application signatureand challenge response for a managed mobile application.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of example method steps for managing a mobileapplication at an unmanaged mobile device.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of example method steps for preparing a managedmobile application for managed operation at an unmanaged mobile device.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of example method steps for initializing amanaged mobile application at an unmanaged mobile device.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of example method steps for validating a managedmobile application at an unmanaged mobile device having a first type ofmobile operating system.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of example method steps for validating a managedmobile application at an unmanaged mobile device having a second type ofmobile operating system.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of example method steps for enforcing applicationpolicies during operation of a managed mobile application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of the various embodiments, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings identified above and which form a parthereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration various embodimentsin which aspects described herein may be practiced. It is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural andfunctional modifications may be made without departing from the scopedescribed herein. Various aspects are capable of other embodiments andof being practiced or being carried out in various different ways.

As a general introduction to the subject matter described in more detailbelow, aspects described herein are directed towards controlling remoteand local access to computing resources at a remotely located enterprisecomputing system or at mobile computing devices themselves. An accessmanager may perform a validation process that determines whether amobile application requesting access to computing resources hasaccurately identified itself and has not been subsequently altered afterinstallation at the mobile computing device. In this way, the accessmanager may ensure the mobile application requesting access to thecomputing resource can be trusted and is not attempting to circumventthe security mechanisms used to protect those resources. As a result,individuals associated with the enterprise may advantageously utilizecomputing resources at their personal mobile devices. Computingresources may be located locally or remotely relative to the mobilecomputing device. Examples of computing resources include a softwareapplication operating at the mobile computing device or a remotecomputing system, a service provided by the mobile computing device or aremote computing system, data stored at the mobile computing device orthe remote computing system, hardware at the mobile computing device orthe remote computing system, and combinations of such. In the presentdisclosure, computing resources that are remotely located at a computingsystem of an enterprise are referred to as enterprise resources.

It is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used hereinare for the purpose of description and should not be regarded aslimiting. Rather, the phrases and terms used herein are to be giventheir broadest interpretation and meaning. The use of “including” and“comprising” and variations thereof is meant to encompass the itemslisted thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional itemsand equivalents thereof. The use of the terms “mounted,” “connected,”“coupled,” “positioned,” “engaged” and similar terms, is meant toinclude both direct and indirect mounting, connecting, coupling,positioning and engaging.

Computing Architecture

Computer software, hardware, and networks may be utilized in a varietyof different system environments, including standalone, networked,remote-access (aka, remote desktop), virtualized, and/or cloud-basedenvironments, among others. FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a systemarchitecture and data processing device that may be used to implementone or more illustrative aspects of the disclosure in a standaloneand/or networked environment. Various network nodes 103, 105, 107, and109 may be interconnected via a wide area network (WAN) 101, such as theInternet. Other networks may also or alternatively be used, includingprivate intranets, corporate networks, LANs, metropolitan area networks(MAN) wireless networks, personal networks (PAN), and the like. Network101 is for illustration purposes and may be replaced with fewer oradditional computer networks. A local area network (LAN) may have one ormore of any known LAN topology and may use one or more of a variety ofdifferent protocols, such as Ethernet. Devices 103, 105, 107, 109 andother devices (not shown) may be connected to one or more of thenetworks via twisted pair wires, coaxial cable, fiber optics, radiowaves or other communication media.

The term “network” as used herein and depicted in the drawings refersnot only to systems in which remote storage devices are coupled togethervia one or more communication paths, but also to stand-alone devicesthat may be coupled, from time to time, to such systems that havestorage capability. Consequently, the term “network” includes not only a“physical network” but also a “content network,” which is comprised ofthe data—attributable to a single entity—which resides across allphysical networks.

The components may include data server 103, web server 105, and clientcomputers 107, 109. Data server 103 provides overall access, control andadministration of databases and control software for performing one ormore illustrative aspects of the disclosure as described herein. Dataserver 103 may be connected to web server 105 through which usersinteract with and obtain data as requested. Alternatively, data server103 may act as a web server itself and be directly connected to theInternet. Data server 103 may be connected to web server 105 through thenetwork 101 (e.g., the Internet), via direct or indirect connection, orvia some other network. Users may interact with the data server 103using remote computers 107, 109, e.g., using a web browser to connect tothe data server 103 via one or more externally exposed web sites hostedby web server 105. Client computers 107, 109 may be used in concert withdata server 103 to access data stored therein, or may be used for otherpurposes. For example, from client device 107 a user may access webserver 105 using an Internet browser, as is known in the art, or byexecuting a software application that communicates with web server 105and/or data server 103 over a computer network (such as the Internet).

Servers and applications may be combined on the same physical machines,and retain separate virtual or logical addresses, or may reside onseparate physical machines. FIG. 1 illustrates just one example of anetwork architecture that may be used, and those of skill in the artwill appreciate that the specific network architecture and dataprocessing devices used may vary, and are secondary to the functionalitythat they provide, as further described herein. For example, servicesprovided by web server 105 and data server 103 may be combined on asingle server.

Each component 103, 105, 107, 109 may be any type of known computer,server, or data processing device. Data server 103, e.g., may include aprocessor 111 controlling overall operation of the rate server 103. Dataserver 103 may further include RAM 113, ROM 115, network interface 117,input/output interfaces 119 (e.g., keyboard, mouse, display, printer,etc.), and memory 121. I/O 119 may include a variety of interface unitsand drives for reading, writing, displaying, and/or printing data orfiles. Memory 121 may further store operating system software 123 forcontrolling overall operation of the data processing device 103, controllogic 125 for instructing data server 103 to perform aspects of thedisclosure as described herein, and other application software 127providing secondary, support, and/or other functionality which may ormay not be used in conjunction with aspects of the present disclosure.The control logic may also be referred to herein as the data serversoftware 125. Functionality of the data server software may refer tooperations or decisions made automatically based on rules coded into thecontrol logic, made manually by a user providing input into the system,and/or a combination of automatic processing based on user input (e.g.,queries, data updates, etc.).

Memory 121 may also store data used in performance of one or moreaspects of the disclosure, including a first database 129 and a seconddatabase 131. In some embodiments, the first database may include thesecond database (e.g., as a separate table, report, etc.). That is, theinformation can be stored in a single database, or separated intodifferent logical, virtual, or physical databases, depending on systemdesign. Devices 105, 107, 109 may have similar or different architectureas described with respect to device 103. Those of skill in the art willappreciate that the functionality of data processing device 103 (ordevice 105, 107, 109) as described herein may be spread across multipledata processing devices, for example, to distribute processing loadacross multiple computers, to segregate transactions based on geographiclocation, user access level, quality of service (QoS), etc.

One or more aspects may be embodied in computer-usable or readable dataand/or computer-executable instructions, such as in one or more programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices as describedherein. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor ina computer or other device. The modules may be written in a source codeprogramming language that is subsequently compiled for execution, or maybe written in a scripting language such as (but not limited to) HTML orXML. The computer executable instructions may be stored on a computerreadable medium such as a nonvolatile storage device. Any suitablecomputer readable storage media may be utilized, including hard disks,CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or anycombination thereof. In addition, various transmission (non-storage)media representing data or events as described herein may be transferredbetween a source and a destination in the form of electromagnetic wavestraveling through signal-conducting media such as metal wires, opticalfibers, and/or wireless transmission media (e.g., air and/or space).Various aspects described herein may be embodied as a method, a dataprocessing system, or a computer program product. Therefore, variousfunctionality may be embodied in whole or in part in software, firmwareand/or hardware or hardware equivalents such as integrated circuits,field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and the like. Particular datastructures may be used to more effectively implement one or more aspectsof the disclosure, and such data structures are contemplated within thescope of computer executable instructions and computer-usable datadescribed herein.

With further reference to FIG. 2, one or more aspects described hereinmay be implemented in a remote-access environment. FIG. 2 depicts anexample system architecture including a generic computing device 201 inan illustrative computing environment 200 that may be used according toone or more illustrative aspects described herein. Generic computingdevice 201 may be used as a server 206 a in a single-server ormulti-server desktop virtualization system (e.g., a remote access orcloud system) configured to provide virtual machines for client accessdevices. The generic computing device 201 may have a processor 203 forcontrolling overall operation of the server and its associatedcomponents, including random access memory (RAM) 205, read-only memory(ROM) 207, input/output (I/O) module 209, and memory 215.

I/O module 209 may include a mouse, keypad, touch screen, scanner,optical reader, and/or stylus (or other input device(s)) through which auser of generic computing device 201 may provide input, and may alsoinclude one or more of a speaker for providing audio output and a videodisplay device for providing textual, audiovisual, and/or graphicaloutput. Software may be stored within memory 215 and/or other storage toprovide instructions to processor 203 for configuring generic computingdevice 201 into a special purpose computing device in order to performvarious functions as described herein. For example, memory 215 may storesoftware used by the computing device 201, such as an operating system217, application programs 219, and an associated database 221.

Computing device 201 may operate in a networked environment supportingconnections to one or more remote computers, such as terminals 240 (alsoreferred to as client devices). The terminals 240 may be personalcomputers, mobile devices, laptop computers, tablets, or servers thatinclude many or all of the elements described above with respect to thegeneric computing device 103 or 201. The network connections depicted inFIG. 2 include a local area network (LAN) 225 and a wide area network(WAN) 229, but may also include other networks. When used in a LANnetworking environment, computing device 201 may be connected to the LAN225 through a network interface or adapter 223. When used in a WANnetworking environment, computing device 201 may include a modem 227 orother wide area network interface for establishing communications overthe WAN 229, such as computer network 230 (e.g., the Internet). It willbe appreciated that the network connections shown are illustrative andother means of establishing a communications link between the computersmay be used. Computing device 201 and/or terminals 240 may also bemobile terminals (e.g., mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, notebooks,etc.) including various other components, such as a battery, speaker,and antennas (not shown).

Aspects described herein may also be operational with numerous othergeneral purpose or special purpose computing system environments orconfigurations. Examples of other computing systems, environments,and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with aspectsdescribed herein include, but are not limited to, personal computers,server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumerelectronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers,distributed computing environments that include any of the above systemsor devices, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2, one or more client devices 240 may be incommunication with one or more servers 206 a-206 n (generally referredto herein as “server(s) 206”). In one embodiment, the computingenvironment 200 may include a network appliance installed between theserver(s) 206 and client machine(s) 240. The network appliance maymanage client/server connections, and in some cases can load balanceclient connections amongst a plurality of backend servers 206.

The client machine(s) 240 may in some embodiments be referred to as asingle client machine 240 or a single group of client machines 240,while server(s) 206 may be referred to as a single server 206 or asingle group of servers 206. In one embodiment a single client machine240 communicates with more than one server 206, while in anotherembodiment a single server 206 communicates with more than one clientmachine 240. In yet another embodiment, a single client machine 240communicates with a single server 206.

A client machine 240 can, in some embodiments, be referenced by any oneof the following non-exhaustive terms: client machine(s); client(s);client computer(s); client device(s); client computing device(s); localmachine; remote machine; client node(s); endpoint(s); or endpointnode(s). The server 206, in some embodiments, may be referenced by anyone of the following non-exhaustive terms: server(s), local machine;remote machine; server farm(s), or host computing device(s).

In one embodiment, the client machine 240 may be a virtual machine. Thevirtual machine may be any virtual machine, while in some embodimentsthe virtual machine may be any virtual machine managed by a Type 1 orType 2 hypervisor, for example, a hypervisor developed by CitrixSystems, IBM, VMware, or any other hypervisor. In some aspects, thevirtual machine may be managed by a hypervisor, while in aspects thevirtual machine may be managed by a hypervisor executing on a server 206or a hypervisor executing on a client 240.

Some embodiments include a client device 240 that displays applicationoutput generated by an application remotely executing on a server 206 orother remotely located machine. In these embodiments, the client device240 may execute a virtual machine receiver program or application todisplay the output in an application window, a browser, or other outputwindow. In one example, the application is a desktop, while in otherexamples the application is an application that generates or presents adesktop. A desktop may include a graphical shell providing a userinterface for an instance of an operating system in which local and/orremote applications can be integrated. Applications, as used herein, areprograms that execute after an instance of an operating system (and,optionally, also the desktop) has been loaded.

The server 206, in some embodiments, uses a remote presentation protocolor other program to send data to a thin-client or remote-displayapplication executing on the client to present display output generatedby an application executing on the server 206. The thin-client orremote-display protocol can be any one of the following non-exhaustivelist of protocols: the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocoldeveloped by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; or the RemoteDesktop Protocol (RDP) manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation ofRedmond, Wash.

A remote computing environment may include more than one server 206a-206 n such that the servers 206 a-206 n are logically grouped togetherinto a server farm 206, for example, in a cloud computing environment.The server farm 206 may include servers 206 that are geographicallydispersed while and logically grouped together, or servers 206 that arelocated proximate to each other while logically grouped together.Geographically dispersed servers 206 a-206 n within a server farm 206can, in some embodiments, communicate using a WAN (wide), MAN(metropolitan), or LAN (local), where different geographic regions canbe characterized as: different continents; different regions of acontinent; different countries; different states; different cities;different campuses; different rooms; or any combination of the precedinggeographical locations. In some embodiments the server farm 206 may beadministered as a single entity, while in other embodiments the serverfarm 206 can include multiple server farms.

In some embodiments, a server farm may include servers 206 that executea substantially similar type of operating system platform (e.g.,WINDOWS, UNIX, LINUX, iOS, ANDROID, SYMBIAN, etc.) In other embodiments,server farm 206 may include a first group of one or more servers thatexecute a first type of operating system platform, and a second group ofone or more servers that execute a second type of operating systemplatform.

Server 206 may be configured as any type of server, as needed, e.g., afile server, an application server, a web server, a proxy server, anappliance, a network appliance, a gateway, an application gateway, agateway server, a virtualization server, a deployment server, an SSL VPNserver, a firewall, a web server, an application server or as a masterapplication server, a server executing an active directory, or a serverexecuting an application acceleration program that provides firewallfunctionality, application functionality, or load balancingfunctionality. Other server types may also be used.

Some embodiments include a first server 106 a that receives requestsfrom a client machine 240, forwards the request to a second server 106b, and responds to the request generated by the client machine 240 witha response from the second server 106 b. First server 106 a may acquirean enumeration of applications available to the client machine 240 aswell as address information associated with an application server 206hosting an application identified within the enumeration ofapplications. First server 106 a can then present a response to theclient's request using a web interface, and communicate directly withthe client 240 to provide the client 240 with access to an identifiedapplication. One or more clients 240 and/or one or more servers 206 maytransmit data over network 230, e.g., network 101.

FIG. 2 shows a high-level architecture of an illustrative desktopvirtualization system. As shown, the desktop virtualization system maybe single-server or multi-server system, or cloud system, including atleast one virtualization server 206 configured to provide virtualdesktops and/or virtual applications to one or more client accessdevices 240. As used herein, a desktop refers to a graphical environmentor space in which one or more applications may be hosted and/orexecuted. A desktop may include a graphical shell providing a userinterface for an instance of an operating system in which local and/orremote applications can be integrated. Applications may include programsthat execute after an instance of an operating system (and, optionally,also the desktop) has been loaded. Each instance of the operating systemmay be physical (e.g., one operating system per device) or virtual(e.g., many instances of an OS running on a single device). Eachapplication may be executed on a local device, or executed on a remotelylocated device (e.g., remoted).

With further reference to FIG. 3, a computer device 301 may beconfigured as a virtualization server in a virtualization environment,for example, a single-server, multi-server, or cloud computingenvironment. Virtualization server 301 illustrated in FIG. 3 can bedeployed as and/or implemented by one or more embodiments of the server206 illustrated in FIG. 2 or by other known computing devices. Includedin virtualization server 301 is a hardware layer that can include one ormore physical disks 304, one or more physical devices 306, one or morephysical processors 308 and one or more physical memories 316. In someembodiments, firmware 312 can be stored within a memory element in thephysical memory 316 and can be executed by one or more of the physicalprocessors 308. Virtualization server 301 may further include anoperating system 314 that may be stored in a memory element in thephysical memory 316 and executed by one or more of the physicalprocessors 308. Still further, a hypervisor 302 may be stored in amemory element in the physical memory 316 and can be executed by one ormore of the physical processors 308.

Executing on one or more of the physical processors 308 may be one ormore virtual machines 332A-C (generally 332). Each virtual machine 332may have a virtual disk 326A-C and a virtual processor 328A-C. In someembodiments, a first virtual machine 332A may execute, using a virtualprocessor 328A, a control program 320 that includes a tools stack 324.Control program 320 may be referred to as a control virtual machine,Dom0, Domain 0, or other virtual machine used for system administrationand/or control. In some embodiments, one or more virtual machines 332B-Ccan execute, using a virtual processor 328B-C, a guest operating system330A-B.

Virtualization server 301 may include a hardware layer 310 with one ormore pieces of hardware that communicate with the virtualization server301. In some embodiments, the hardware layer 310 can include one or morephysical disks 304, one or more physical devices 306, one or morephysical processors 308, and one or more memory 316. Physical components304, 306, 308, and 316 may include, for example, any of the componentsdescribed above. Physical devices 306 may include, for example, anetwork interface card, a video card, a keyboard, a mouse, an inputdevice, a monitor, a display device, speakers, an optical drive, astorage device, a universal serial bus connection, a printer, a scanner,a network element (e.g., router, firewall, network address translator,load balancer, virtual private network (VPN) gateway, Dynamic HostConfiguration Protocol (DHCP) router, etc.), or any device connected toor communicating with virtualization server 301. Physical memory 316 inthe hardware layer 310 may include any type of memory. Physical memory316 may store data, and in some embodiments may store one or moreprograms, or set of executable instructions. FIG. 3 illustrates anembodiment where firmware 312 is stored within the physical memory 316of virtualization server 301. Programs or executable instructions storedin the physical memory 316 can be executed by the one or more processors308 of virtualization server 301.

Virtualization server 301 may also include a hypervisor 302. In someembodiments, hypervisor 302 may be a program executed by processors 308on virtualization server 301 to create and manage any number of virtualmachines 332. Hypervisor 302 may be referred to as a virtual machinemonitor, or platform virtualization software. In some embodiments,hypervisor 302 can be any combination of executable instructions andhardware that monitors virtual machines executing on a computingmachine. Hypervisor 302 may be Type 2 hypervisor, where the hypervisorthat executes within an operating system 314 executing on thevirtualization server 301. Virtual machines then execute at a levelabove the hypervisor. In some embodiments, the Type 2 hypervisorexecutes within the context of a user's operating system such that theType 2 hypervisor interacts with the user's operating system. In otherembodiments, one or more virtualization servers 301 in a virtualizationenvironment may instead include a Type 1 hypervisor (not shown). A Type1 hypervisor may execute on the virtualization server 301 by directlyaccessing the hardware and resources within the hardware layer 310. Thatis, while a Type 2 hypervisor 302 accesses system resources through ahost operating system 314, as shown, a Type 1 hypervisor may directlyaccess all system resources without the host operating system 314. AType 1 hypervisor may execute directly on one or more physicalprocessors 308 of virtualization server 301, and may include programdata stored in the physical memory 316.

Hypervisor 302, in some embodiments, can provide virtual resources tooperating systems 330 or control programs 320 executing on virtualmachines 332 in any manner that simulates the operating systems 330 orcontrol programs 320 having direct access to system resources. Systemresources can include, but are not limited to, physical devices 306,physical disks 304, physical processors 308, physical memory 316 and anyother component included in virtualization server 301 hardware layer310. Hypervisor 302 may be used to emulate virtual hardware, partitionphysical hardware, virtualize physical hardware, and/or execute virtualmachines that provide access to computing environments. In still otherembodiments, hypervisor 302 controls processor scheduling and memorypartitioning for a virtual machine 332 executing on virtualizationserver 301. Hypervisor 302 may include those manufactured by VMWare,Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif.; the XEN hypervisor, an open source productwhose development is overseen by the open source Xen.org community;HyperV, VirtualServer or virtual PC hypervisors provided by Microsoft,or others. In some embodiments, virtualization server 301 executes ahypervisor 302 that creates a virtual machine platform on which guestoperating systems may execute. In these embodiments, the virtualizationserver 301 may be referred to as a host server. An example of such avirtualization server is the XEN SERVER provided by Citrix Systems,Inc., of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Hypervisor 302 may create one or more virtual machines 332B-C (generally332) in which guest operating systems 330 execute. In some embodiments,hypervisor 302 may load a virtual machine image to create a virtualmachine 332. In other embodiments, the hypervisor 302 may executes aguest operating system 330 within virtual machine 332. In still otherembodiments, virtual machine 332 may execute guest operating system 330.

In addition to creating virtual machines 332, hypervisor 302 may controlthe execution of at least one virtual machine 332. In other embodiments,hypervisor 302 may presents at least one virtual machine 332 with anabstraction of at least one hardware resource provided by thevirtualization server 301 (e.g., any hardware resource available withinthe hardware layer 310). In other embodiments, hypervisor 302 maycontrol the manner in which virtual machines 332 access physicalprocessors 308 available in virtualization server 301. Controllingaccess to physical processors 308 may include determining whether avirtual machine 332 should have access to a processor 308, and howphysical processor capabilities are presented to the virtual machine332.

As shown in FIG. 3, virtualization server 301 may host or execute one ormore virtual machines 332. A virtual machine 332 is a set of executableinstructions that, when executed by a processor 308, imitate theoperation of a physical computer such that the virtual machine 332 canexecute programs and processes much like a physical computing device.While FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment where a virtualization server 301hosts three virtual machines 332, in other embodiments virtualizationserver 301 can host any number of virtual machines 332. Hypervisor 302,in some embodiments, provides each virtual machine 332 with a uniquevirtual view of the physical hardware, memory, processor and othersystem resources available to that virtual machine 332. In someembodiments, the unique virtual view can be based on one or more ofvirtual machine permissions, application of a policy engine to one ormore virtual machine identifiers, a user accessing a virtual machine,the applications executing on a virtual machine, networks accessed by avirtual machine, or any other desired criteria. For instance, hypervisor302 may create one or more unsecure virtual machines 332 and one or moresecure virtual machines 332. Unsecure virtual machines 332 may beprevented from accessing resources, hardware, memory locations, andprograms that secure virtual machines 332 may be permitted to access. Inother embodiments, hypervisor 302 may provide each virtual machine 332with a substantially similar virtual view of the physical hardware,memory, processor and other system resources available to the virtualmachines 332.

Each virtual machine 332 may include a virtual disk 326A-C (generally326) and a virtual processor 328A-C (generally 328.) The virtual disk326, in some embodiments, is a virtualized view of one or more physicaldisks 304 of the virtualization server 301, or a portion of one or morephysical disks 304 of the virtualization server 301. The virtualizedview of the physical disks 304 can be generated, provided and managed bythe hypervisor 302. In some embodiments, hypervisor 302 provides eachvirtual machine 332 with a unique view of the physical disks 304. Thus,in these embodiments, the particular virtual disk 326 included in eachvirtual machine 332 can be unique when compared with the other virtualdisks 326.

A virtual processor 328 can be a virtualized view of one or morephysical processors 308 of the virtualization server 301. In someembodiments, the virtualized view of the physical processors 308 can begenerated, provided and managed by hypervisor 302. In some embodiments,virtual processor 328 has substantially all of the same characteristicsof at least one physical processor 308. In other embodiments, virtualprocessor 308 provides a modified view of physical processors 308 suchthat at least some of the characteristics of the virtual processor 328are different than the characteristics of the corresponding physicalprocessor 308.

With further reference to FIG. 4, some aspects described herein may beimplemented in a cloud-based environment. FIG. 4 illustrates an exampleof a cloud computing environment (or cloud system) 400. As seen in FIG.4, client computers 411-414 may communicate with a cloud managementserver 410 to access the computing resources (e.g., host servers 403,storage resources 404, and network resources 405) of the cloud system.

Management server 410 may be implemented on one or more physicalservers. The management server 410 may run, for example, CLOUDSTACK byCitrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., or OPENSTACK, amongothers. Management server 410 may manage various computing resources,including cloud hardware and software resources, for example, hostcomputers 403, data storage devices 404, and networking devices 405. Thecloud hardware and software resources may include private and/or publiccomponents. For example, a cloud may be configured as a private cloud tobe used by one or more particular customers or client computers 411-414and/or over a private network. In other embodiments, public clouds orhybrid public-private clouds may be used by other customers over an openor hybrid networks.

Management server 410 may be configured to provide user interfacesthrough which cloud operators and cloud customers may interact with thecloud system. For example, the management server 410 may provide a setof APIs and/or one or more cloud operator console applications (e.g.,web-based on standalone applications) with user interfaces to allowcloud operators to manage the cloud resources, configure thevirtualization layer, manage customer accounts, and perform other cloudadministration tasks. The management server 410 also may include a setof APIs and/or one or more customer console applications with userinterfaces configured to receive cloud computing requests from end usersvia client computers 411-414, for example, requests to create, modify,or destroy virtual machines within the cloud. Client computers 411-414may connect to management server 410 via the Internet or othercommunication network, and may request access to one or more of thecomputing resources managed by management server 410. In response toclient requests, the management server 410 may include a resourcemanager configured to select and provision physical resources in thehardware layer of the cloud system based on the client requests. Forexample, the management server 410 and additional components of thecloud system may be configured to provision, create, and manage virtualmachines and their operating environments (e.g., hypervisors, storageresources, services offered by the network elements, etc.) for customersat client computers 411-414, over a network (e.g., the Internet),providing customers with computational resources, data storage services,networking capabilities, and computer platform and application support.Cloud systems also may be configured to provide various specificservices, including security systems, development environments, userinterfaces, and the like.

Certain clients 411-414 may be related, for example, different clientcomputers creating virtual machines on behalf of the same end user, ordifferent users affiliated with the same company or organization. Inother examples, certain clients 411-414 may be unrelated, such as usersaffiliated with different companies or organizations. For unrelatedclients, information on the virtual machines or storage of any one usermay be hidden from other users.

Referring now to the physical hardware layer of a cloud computingenvironment, availability zones 401-402 (or zones) may refer to acollocated set of physical computing resources. Zones may begeographically separated from other zones in the overall cloud ofcomputing resources. For example, zone 401 may be a first clouddatacenter located in California, and zone 402 may be a second clouddatacenter located in Florida. Management sever 410 may be located atone of the availability zones, or at a separate location. Each zone mayinclude an internal network that interfaces with devices that areoutside of the zone, such as the management server 410, through agateway. End users of the cloud (e.g., clients 411-414) might or mightnot be aware of the distinctions between zones. For example, an end usermay request the creation of a virtual machine having a specified amountof memory, processing power, and network capabilities. The managementserver 410 may respond to the user's request and may allocate theresources to create the virtual machine without the user knowing whetherthe virtual machine was created using resources from zone 401 or zone402. In other examples, the cloud system may allow end users to requestthat virtual machines (or other cloud resources) are allocated in aspecific zone or on specific resources 403-405 within a zone.

In this example, each zone 401-402 may include an arrangement of variousphysical hardware components (or computing resources) 403-405, forexample, physical hosting resources (or processing resources), physicalnetwork resources, physical storage resources, switches, and additionalhardware resources that may be used to provide cloud computing servicesto customers. The physical hosting resources in a cloud zone 401-402 mayinclude one or more computer servers 403, such as the virtualizationservers 301 described above, which may be configured to create and hostvirtual machine instances. The physical network resources in a cloudzone 401 or 402 may include one or more network elements 405 (e.g.,network service providers) comprising hardware and/or softwareconfigured to provide a network service to cloud customers, such asfirewalls, network address translators, load balancers, virtual privatenetwork (VPN) gateways, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)routers, and the like. The storage resources in the cloud zone 401-402may include storage disks (e.g., solid state drives (SSDs), magnetichard disks, etc.) and other storage devices.

The example cloud computing environment shown in FIG. 4 also may includea virtualization layer (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 1-3) with additionalhardware and/or software resources configured to create and managevirtual machines and provide other services to customers using thephysical resources in the cloud. The virtualization layer may includehypervisors, as described above in FIG. 3, along with other componentsto provide network virtualizations, storage virtualizations, etc. Thevirtualization layer may be as a separate layer from the physicalresource layer, or may share some or all of the same hardware and/orsoftware resources with the physical resource layer. For example, thevirtualization layer may include a hypervisor installed in each of thevirtualization servers 403 with the physical computing resources. Knowncloud systems may alternatively be used, e.g., WINDOWS AZURE (MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond Wash.), AMAZON EC2 (Amazon.com Inc. of Seattle,Wash.), IBM BLUE CLOUD (IBM Corporation of Armonk, N.Y.), or others.

Enterprise Mobility Management Architecture

FIG. 5 represents an enterprise mobility technical architecture 500 foruse in a BYOD environment. The architecture enables a user of a mobiledevice 502 to both access enterprise or personal resources from a mobiledevice 502 and use the mobile device 502 for personal use. The user mayaccess such enterprise resources 504 or enterprise services 508 using amobile device 502 that is purchased by the user or a mobile device 502that is provided by the enterprise to user. The user may utilize themobile device 502 for business use only or for business and personaluse. The mobile device may run an iOS operating system, and Androidoperating system, or the like. The enterprise may choose to implementpolicies to manage the mobile device 504. The policies may be implantedthrough a firewall or gateway in such a way that the mobile device maybe identified, secured or security verified, and provided selective orfull access to the enterprise resources. The policies may be mobiledevice management policies, mobile application management policies,mobile data management policies, or some combination of mobile device,application, and data management policies. A mobile device 504 that ismanaged through the application of mobile device management policies maybe referred to as an enrolled device.

The operating system of the mobile device may be separated into amanaged partition 510 and an unmanaged partition 512. The managedpartition 510 may have policies applied to it to secure the applicationsrunning on and data stored in the managed partition. The applicationsrunning on the managed partition may be secure applications. The secureapplications may be email applications, web browsing applications,software-as-a-service (SaaS) access applications, Windows Applicationaccess applications, and the like. The secure applications may be securenative applications 514, secure remote applications 522 executed by asecure application launcher 518, virtualization applications 526executed by a secure application launcher 518, and the like. The securenative applications 514 may be wrapped by a secure application wrapper520. The secure application wrapper 520 may include integrated policiesthat are executed on the mobile device 502 when the secure nativeapplication is executed on the device. The secure application wrapper520 may include meta-data that points the secure native application 514running on the mobile device 502 to the resources hosted at theenterprise that the secure native application 514 may require tocomplete the task requested upon execution of the secure nativeapplication 514. The secure remote applications 522 executed by a secureapplication launcher 518 may be executed within the secure applicationlauncher application 518. The virtualization applications 526 executedby a secure application launcher 518 may utilize resources on the mobiledevice 502, at the enterprise resources 504, and the like. The resourcesused on the mobile device 502 by the virtualization applications 526executed by a secure application launcher 518 may include userinteraction resources, processing resources, and the like. The userinteraction resources may be used to collect and transmit keyboardinput, mouse input, camera input, tactile input, audio input, visualinput, gesture input, and the like. The processing resources may be usedto present a user interface, process data received from the enterpriseresources 504, and the like. The resources used at the enterpriseresources 504 by the virtualization applications 526 executed by asecure application launcher 518 may include user interface generationresources, processing resources, and the like. The user interfacegeneration resources may be used to assemble a user interface, modify auser interface, refresh a user interface, and the like. The processingresources may be used to create information, read information, updateinformation, delete information, and the like. For example, thevirtualization application may record user interactions associated witha GUI and communicate them to a server application where the serverapplication may use the user interaction data as an input to theapplication operating on the server. In this arrangement, an enterprisemay elect to maintain the application on the server side as well asdata, files, etc. associated with the application. While an enterprisemay elect to “mobilize” some applications in accordance with theprinciples herein by securing them for deployment on the mobile device,this arrangement may also be elected for certain applications. Forexample, while some applications may be secured for use on the mobiledevice, others may not be prepared or appropriate for deployment on themobile device so the enterprise may elect to provide the mobile useraccess to the unprepared applications through virtualization techniques.As another example, the enterprise may have large complex applicationswith large and complex data sets (e.g. material resource planningapplications) where it would be very difficult, or otherwiseundesirable, to customize the application for the mobile device so theenterprise may elect to provide access to the application throughvirtualization techniques. As yet another example, the enterprise mayhave an application that maintains highly secured data (e.g. humanresources data, customer data, engineering data) that may be deemed bythe enterprise as too sensitive for even the secured mobile environmentso the enterprise may elect to use virtualization techniques to permitmobile access to such applications and data. An enterprise may elect toprovide both fully secured and fully functional applications on themobile device as well as a virtualization application to allow access toapplications that are deemed more properly operated on the server side.In an embodiment, the virtualization application may store some data,files, etc. on the mobile phone in one of the secure storage locations.An enterprise, for example, may elect to allow certain information to bestored on the phone while not permitting other information.

In connection with the virtualization application, as described herein,the mobile device may have a virtualization application that is designedto present GUIs and then record user interactions with the GUI. Theapplication may communicate the user interactions to the server side tobe used by the server side application as user interactions with theapplication. In response, the application on the server side maytransmit back to the mobile device a new GUI. For example, the new GUImay be a static page, a dynamic page, an animation, or the like.

The applications running on the managed partition may be stabilizedapplications. The stabilized applications may be managed by a devicemanager 524. The device manager 524 may monitor the stabilizedapplications and utilize techniques for detecting and remedying problemsthat would result in a destabilized application if such techniques werenot utilized to detect and remedy the problems.

The secure applications may access data stored in a secure datacontainer 528 in the managed partition 510 of the mobile device. Thedata secured in the secure data container may be accessed by the securewrapped applications 514, applications executed by a secure applicationlauncher 518, virtualization applications 526 executed by a secureapplication launcher 518, and the like. The data stored in the securedata container 528 may include files, databases, and the like. The datastored in the secure data container 528 may include data restricted to aspecific secure application 530, shared among secure applications 532,and the like. Data restricted to a secure application may include securegeneral data 534 and highly secure data 538. Secure general data may usea strong form of encryption such as AES 128-bit encryption or the like,while highly secure data 538 may use a very strong form of encryptionsuch as AES 254-bit encryption. Data stored in the secure data container528 may be deleted from the device upon receipt of a command from thedevice manager 524. The secure applications may have a dual-mode option540. The dual mode option 540 may present the user with an option tooperate the secured application in an unsecured mode. In an unsecuredmode, the secure applications may access data stored in an unsecureddata container 542 on the unmanaged partition 512 of the mobile device502. The data stored in an unsecured data container may be personal data544. The data stored in an unsecured data container 542 may also beaccessed by unsecured applications 548 that are running on the unmanagedpartition 512 of the mobile device 502. The data stored in an unsecureddata container 542 may remain on the mobile device 502 when the datastored in the secure data container 528 is deleted from the mobiledevice 502. An enterprise may want to delete from the mobile deviceselected or all data, files, and/or applications owned, licensed orcontrolled by the enterprise (enterprise data) while leaving orotherwise preserving personal data, files, and/or applications owned,licensed or controlled by the user (personal data). This operation maybe referred to as a selective wipe. With the enterprise and personaldata arranged in accordance to the examples described herein, anenterprise may perform a selective wipe.

The mobile device may connect to enterprise resources 504 and enterpriseservices 508 at an enterprise, to the public Internet 548, and the like.The mobile device may connect to enterprise resources 504 and enterpriseservices 508 through virtual private network connections. The virtualprivate network connections may be specific to particular applications550, particular devices, particular secured areas on the mobile device,and the like 552. For example, each of the wrapped applications in thesecured area of the phone may access enterprise resources through anapplication specific VPN such that access to the VPN would be grantedbased on attributes associated with the application, possibly inconjunction with user or device attribute information. The virtualprivate network connections may carry Microsoft Exchange traffic,Microsoft Active Directory traffic, HTTP traffic, HTTPS traffic,application management traffic, and the like. The virtual privatenetwork connections may support and enable single-sign-on authenticationprocesses 554. The single-sign-on processes may allow a user to providea single set of authentication credentials, which are then verified byan authentication service 558. The authentication service 558 may thengrant to the user access to multiple enterprise resources 504, withoutrequiring the user to provide authentication credentials to eachindividual enterprise resource 504.

The virtual private network connections may be established and managedby an access gateway 560. The access gateway 560 may include performanceenhancement features that manage, accelerate, and improve the deliveryof enterprise resources 504 to the mobile device 502. The access gatewaymay also re-route traffic from the mobile device 502 to the publicInternet 548, enabling the mobile device 502 to access publiclyavailable and unsecured applications that run on the public Internet548. The mobile device may connect to the access gateway via a transportnetwork. The transport network may be a wired network, wireless network,cloud network, local area network, metropolitan area network, wide areanetwork, public network, private network, and the like.

The enterprise resources 504 may include email servers, file sharingservers, SaaS applications, Web application servers, Windows applicationservers, and the like. Email servers may include Exchange servers, LotusNotes servers, and the like. File sharing servers may include ShareFileservers, and the like. SaaS applications may include Salesforce, and thelike. Windows application servers may include any application serverthat is built to provide applications that are intended to run on alocal Windows operating system, and the like. The enterprise resources504 may be premise-based resources, cloud based resources, and the like.The enterprise resources 504 may be accessed by the mobile device 502directly or through the access gateway 560. The enterprise resources 504may be accessed by the mobile device 502 via a transport network. Thetransport network may be a wired network, wireless network, cloudnetwork, local area network, metropolitan area network, wide areanetwork, public network, private network, and the like.

The enterprise services 508 may include authentication services 558,threat detection services 564, device manager services 524, file sharingservices 568, policy manager services 570, social integration services572, application controller services 574, and the like. Authenticationservices 558 may include user authentication services, deviceauthentication services, application authentication services, dataauthentication services and the like. Authentication services 558 mayuse certificates. The certificates may be stored on the mobile device502, by the enterprise resources 504, and the like. The certificatesstored on the mobile device 502 may be stored in an encrypted locationon the mobile device, the certificate may be temporarily stored on themobile device 502 for use at the time of authentication, and the like.Threat detection services 564 may include intrusion detection services,unauthorized access attempt detection services, and the like.Unauthorized access attempt detection services may include unauthorizedattempts to access devices, applications, data, and the like. Devicemanagement services 524 may include configuration, provisioning,security, support, monitoring, reporting, and decommissioning services.File sharing services 568 may include file management services, filestorage services, file collaboration services, and the like. Policymanager services 570 may include device policy manager services,application policy manager services, data policy manager services, andthe like. Social integration services 572 may include contactintegration services, collaboration services, integration with socialnetworks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and the like.Application controller services 574 may include management services,provisioning services, deployment services, assignment services,revocation services, wrapping services, and the like.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 500 may include anapplication store 578. The application store 578 may include unwrappedapplications 580, pre-wrapped applications 582, and the like.Applications may be populated in the application store 578 from theapplication controller 574. The application store 578 may be accessed bythe mobile device 502 through the access gateway 560, through the publicInternet 548, or the like. The application store may be provided with anintuitive and easy to use User Interface. The application store 578 mayprovide access to a software development kit 584. The softwaredevelopment kit 584 may provide a user the capability to secureapplications selected by the user by wrapping the application asdescribed previously in this description. An application that has beenwrapped using the software development kit 584 may then be madeavailable to the mobile device 502 by populating it in the applicationstore 578 using the application controller 574.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 500 may include amanagement and analytics capability 588. The management and analyticscapability 588 may provide information related to how resources areused, how often resources are used, and the like. Resources may includedevices, applications, data, and the like. How resources are used mayinclude which devices download which applications, which applicationsaccess which data, and the like. How often resources are used mayinclude how often an application has been downloaded, how many times aspecific set of data has been accessed by an application, and the like.

FIG. 6 is another illustrative enterprise mobility management system600. Some of the components of the mobility management system 500described above with reference to FIG. 5 have been omitted for the sakeof simplicity. The architecture of the system 600 depicted in FIG. 6 issimilar in many respects to the architecture of the system 500 describedabove with reference to FIG. 5 and may include additional features notmentioned above.

In this case, the left hand side represents an enrolled mobile device602 with a receiver 604, which interacts with a gateway 606 tocloud-based services (a “cloud gateway”) and to access variousenterprise resources 608 and services 609 such as Exchange, Sharepoint,PKI Resources, Kerberos Resources, Certificate Issuance service, asshown on the right hand side above. The cloud gateway 606 may alsoinclude access gateway and application controller functionality.Although not specifically shown, the mobile device 602 may also interactwith an enterprise application store (a “store front”) for the selectionand downloading of applications.

The receiver 604 acts as the UI (user interface) intermediary forWindows apps/desktops hosted in an enterprise data center, which areaccessed using a display remoting protocol such as, e.g., the HDX/ICAprotocol available from Citrix. The receiver 604 also supports theinstallation and management of native applications on the mobile device602, such as native iOS or Android applications. For example, themanaged applications 610 (mail, browser, wrapped application) shown inthe figure above are all native applications that execute locally on thedevice. The receiver 604 and the mobile application management protocolof this architecture act to provide policy driven managementcapabilities and features such as connectivity and SSO (single sign on)to enterprise resources/services 608. One example of a mobileapplication management protocol is the MDX (mobile experiencetechnology) protocol available from Citrix. The receiver 604 handlesprimary user authentication to the enterprise, normally to an accessgateway (AG) with SSO to other cloud gateway components. The receiver604 obtains policies from the cloud gateway 606 to control the behaviorof the managed applications 610 on the mobile device 602.

The secure inter-process communication (IPC) links 612 between thenative applications 610 and receiver 604 represent a management channel,which allows the receiver to supply policies to be enforced by themanagement framework 614 “wrapping” each application. The managementframework 614 may be, for example, the MDX framework available fromCitrix. The IPC link 612 also allows receiver 604 to supply credentialand authentication information that enables connectivity and SSO toenterprise resources 608. Finally the IPC link 612 allows the managementframework 614 to invoke user interface functions implemented by receiver604, such as online and offline authentication.

Communications between the receiver 604 and cloud gateway 606 areessentially an extension of the management channel from the managementframework 614 wrapping each native managed application 610. Themanagement framework 614 requests policy information from receiver 604,which in turn requests it from cloud gateway 606. The managementframework 614 requests authentication, and receiver 604 logs into thegateway services part of the cloud gateway 606, which may be, e.g., aNetScaler Access Gateway available from Citrix. The receiver 604 mayalso call supporting services on the cloud gateway 606, which mayproduce input material to derive encryption keys for the local datavaults 616, or provide client certificates which may enable directauthentication to PKI protected resources, as more fully explainedbelow.

In more detail, the management framework 614 “wraps” each managedapplication 610. This may be incorporated via an explicit build step, orvia a post-build processing step. The management framework 614 may“pair” with receiver 604 on first launch of an application 610 toinitialize the secure IPC link 612 and obtain the policy for thatapplication. The management framework 614 may enforce relevant portionsof the policy that apply locally, such as the receiver logindependencies and some of the containment policies that restrict howlocal OS services may be used, or how they may interact with theapplication 610.

The management framework 614 may use services provided by receiver 604over the secure IPC link 612 to facilitate authentication and internalnetwork access. Key management for the private and shared data vaults616 (containers) may be also managed by appropriate interactions betweenthe managed applications 610 and receiver 604. Vaults 616 may beavailable only after online authentication, or may be made availableafter offline authentication if allowed by policy. First use of vaults616 may require online authentication, and offline access may be limitedto at most the policy refresh period before online authentication isagain required.

Network access to internal resources may occur directly from individualmanaged applications 610 through the access gateway functionality of thecloud gateway 606. The management framework 614 is responsible fororchestrating the network access on behalf of each application 610. Thereceiver 604 may facilitate these network connections by providingsuitable time limited secondary credentials obtained following onlineauthentication. Multiple modes of network connection may be used, suchas reverse web proxy connections and end-to-end VPN-style tunnels 618.

The mail and browser managed applications 610 have special status andmay make use of facilities that might not be generally available toarbitrary wrapped applications. For example, the mail application mayuse a special background network access mechanism that allows it toaccess a mail server (e.g., Exchange) over an extended period of timewithout requiring a full AG logon. The browser application may usemultiple private data vaults to segregate different kinds of data.

This architecture supports the incorporation of various other securityfeatures. For example, the cloud gateway 606 (including its gatewayservices) in some cases may not need to validate directory servicepasswords, e.g., Active Directory (AD) passwords. It can be left to thediscretion of an enterprise whether directory service password is usedas an authentication factor for some users in some situations. Differentauthentication methods may be used if a user is online or offline (e.g.,connected or not connected to a network).

Step up authentication is a feature wherein the cloud gateway 606 mayidentify managed native applications 610 that are allowed to have accessto highly classified data requiring strong authentication, and ensurethat access to these applications is only permitted after performingappropriate authentication, even if this means a re-authentication isrequired by the user after a prior weaker level of login.

Another security feature of this solution is the encryption of the datavaults 616 (containers) on the mobile device 602. The vaults 616 may beencrypted so that all on-device data including files, databases, andconfigurations are protected. For on-line vaults, the keys may be storedon the server (e.g., the cloud gateway), and for off-line vaults, alocal copy of the keys may be protected by a user password. When data isstored locally on the device 602 in the secure container 616, it ispreferred that a minimum of AES 256 encryption algorithm be utilized.

Other secure container features may also be implemented. For example, alogging feature may be included, wherein all security events happeninginside an application 610 are logged and reported to the backend. Datawiping may be supported, such as if the application 610 detectstampering, associated encryption keys may be written over with randomdata, leaving no hint on the file system that user data was destroyed.Screenshot protection is another feature, where an application mayprevent any data from being stored in screenshots. For example, the keywindow's hidden property may be set to YES. This may cause whatevercontent is currently displayed on the screen to be hidden, resulting ina blank screenshot where any content would normally reside.

Local data transfer may be prevented, such as by preventing any datafrom being locally transferred outside the application container, e.g.,by copying it or sending it to an external application. A keyboard cachefeature may operate to disable the autocorrect functionality forsensitive text fields. SSL certificate validation may be operable so theapplication specifically validates the server SSL certificate instead ofit being stored in the keychain. An encryption key generation featuremay be used such that the key used to encrypt data on the device isgenerated using a passphrase supplied by the user (if offline access isrequired). It may be XORed with another key randomly generated andstored on the server side if offline access is not required. KeyDerivation functions may operate such that keys generated from the userpassword use KDFs (key derivation functions, notably PBKDF2) rather thancreating a cryptographic hash of it. The latter makes a key susceptibleto brute force or dictionary attacks.

Further, one or more initialization vectors may be used in encryptionmethods. An initialization vector may cause multiple copies of the sameencrypted data to yield different cipher text output, preventing bothreplay and cryptanalytic attacks. This may also prevent an attacker fromdecrypting any data even with a stolen encryption key if the specificinitialization vector used to encrypt the data is not known. Further,authentication then decryption may be used, wherein application data isdecrypted only after the user has authenticated within the application.Another feature may relate to sensitive data in memory, which may bekept in memory (and not in disk) only when it's needed. For example,login credentials may be wiped from memory after login, and encryptionkeys and other data inside objective-C instance variables are notstored, as they may be easily referenced. Instead, memory may bemanually allocated for these.

An inactivity timeout may be implemented, wherein after a policy-definedperiod of inactivity, a user session is terminated.

Data leakage from the management framework 614 may be prevented in otherways. For example, when an application 610 is put in the background, thememory may be cleared after a predetermined (configurable) time period.When backgrounded, a snapshot may be taken of the last displayed screenof the application to fasten the foregrounding process. The screenshotmay contain confidential data and hence should be cleared.

Another security feature relates to the use of an OTP (one timepassword) 620 without the use of directory service 622 password foraccess to one or more applications. In some cases, some users do notknow (or are not permitted to know) their directory service password, sothese users may authenticate using an OTP 620 such as by using ahardware OTP system like SecurID (OTPs may be provided by differentvendors also, such as Entrust or Gemalto). In some cases, after a userauthenticates with a user ID, a text is sent to the user with an OTP620. In some cases, this may be implemented only for online use, with aprompt being a single field.

An offline password may be implemented for offline authentication forthose applications 610 for which offline use is permitted via enterprisepolicy. For example, an enterprise may want the store front to beaccessed in this manner. In this case, the receiver 604 may require theuser to set a custom offline password and the directory service passwordis not used. Cloud gateway 606 may provide policies to control andenforce password standards with respect to the minimum length, characterclass composition, and age of passwords, such as described by thestandard Windows Server password complexity requirements, although theserequirements may be modified.

Another feature relates to the enablement of a client side certificatefor certain applications 610 as secondary credentials (for the purposeof accessing PKI protected web resources via the management frameworkmicro VPN feature). For example, an email application may utilize such acertificate. In this case, certificate-based authentication using amobile data synchronization protocol (e.g., the protocol employed byActiveSync) may be supported, wherein a certificate from the receiver604 may be retrieved by the cloud gateway 606 and used in a keychain.Each managed application may have one associated client certificate,identified by a label that is defined in the cloud gateway.

The cloud gateway 606 may interact with an enterprise special purposeweb service to support the issuance of client certificates to allowrelevant managed applications to authenticate to internal PKI protectedresources.

The receiver 604 and the management framework 614 may be enhanced tosupport obtaining and using client certificates for authentication tointernal PKI protected network resources. More than one certificate maybe supported, such as to match various levels of security and/orseparation requirements. The certificates may be used by the mail andbrowser managed applications, and ultimately by arbitrary wrappedapplications (provided those applications use web service stylecommunication patterns where it is reasonable for the managementframework to mediate https requests).

Management framework client certificate support on iOS may rely onimporting a PKCS 12 BLOB (Binary Large Object) into the iOS keychain ineach managed application for each period of use. Management frameworkclient certificate support may use a HTTPS implementation with privatein-memory key storage. The client certificate may not be present in theiOS keychain and may not be persisted except potentially in“online-only” data value that is strongly protected.

Mutual SSL may also be implemented to provide additional security byrequiring that a mobile device 602 is authenticated to the enterprise,and vice versa. Virtual smart cards for authentication to cloud gateway606 may also be implemented.

Both limited and full Kerberos support may be additional features. Thefull support feature relates to an ability to do full Kerberos login todirectory service 622, using a directory service password or trustedclient certificate, and obtain Kerberos service tickets to respond toHTTP Negotiate authentication challenges. The limited support featurerelates to constrained delegation in AFEE, where AFEE supports invokingKerberos protocol transition so it can obtain and use Kerberos servicetickets (subject to constrained delegation) in response to HTTPNegotiate authentication challenges. This mechanism works in reverse webproxy (aka CVPN) mode, and when http (but not https) connections areproxied in VPN and MicroVPN mode.

Another feature relates to application container locking and wiping,which may automatically occur upon jail-break or rooting detections, andoccur as a pushed command from administration console, and may include aremote wipe functionality even when an application 610 is not running.

A multi-site architecture or configuration of the store front andapplication controller may be supported that allows users to be servicefrom one of several different locations in case of failure.

In some cases, managed applications 610 may be allowed to access acertificate and private key via an API (example OpenSSL). Trustedmanaged applications 610 of an enterprise may be allowed to performspecific Public Key operations with an application's client certificateand private key. Various use cases may be identified and treatedaccordingly, such as when an application behaves like a browser and nocertificate access is required, when an application reads a certificatefor “who am I,” when an application uses the certificate to build asecure session token, and when an application uses private keys fordigital signing of important data (e.g. transaction log) or fortemporary data encryption.

Identification of Managed Mobile Applications

In FIG. 7, an illustrative mobile device management system 700 is shown.The system 700 may be similar in many respects to the systems 500 and600 described above with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 respectively.The system 700 may also omit certain components described above for thesake of simplicity and may include additional features not mentionedabove.

The mobile device management system 700 may include an enterprise system702 in signal communication with one or more mobile devices 704 via anetwork 706. The enterprise system may include an enterprise applicationserver 708, an access gateway 710, and one or more computing resourcessuch as enterprise resources 712.

The enterprise application server 708 may be similar in many respects tothe application store 578 discussed above with reference to FIG. 5. Theenterprise application server 708 may provide access to mobileapplications 714 available for installation at a mobile device, e.g.,the mobile device 704. As noted above, the mobile applications 714 mayinclude both secured and unsecured mobile applications. Accordingly, themobile applications 714 may correspond to the unwrapped applications 180and the pre-wrapped applications 182 described above with reference toFIG. 5. As also noted above, a secured mobile application may be wrappedwith a secure application wrapper that enables the management of andcontrol over the execution of the secured mobile application. In thisregard, a secured mobile application, wrapped mobile application, orenrolled mobile application may also be referred to as a managed mobileapplication.

The enterprise application server 708 may also provide access toapplication policies 716 and application metadata 718 respectivelyassociated with the mobile applications 714. An application policy 716may represent one of the mechanisms through which management of a mobileapplication is achieved. As noted above, an application policy 716 maydefine rights and entitlements with respect to which users may utilize amanaged mobile application, which computing resources a managed mobileapplication may access, the features available at a managed mobileapplication when executing at a mobile device, and combinations of thesame.

Application metadata 718 refers to information that describes and/oridentifies a mobile application. Application metadata 718 may begenerated during the build process of a new mobile application and madeavailable via the enterprise application server 708 when the new mobileapplication is published to the enterprise application serverApplication metadata 718 may include, for example, the name of themobile application, the size of the mobile application, a uniqueidentifier for the mobile application, the version of the mobileapplication, and so forth. As discussed further below applicationmetadata 718 may also include information useful to validate theidentity of a mobile application.

The access gateway 710 may facilitate access to the enterprise resources712 from a managed mobile application operating at a mobile device,e.g., the mobile device 704. The access gateway 710 may be similar inmany respects to the access gateway 160 and the cloud gateway 606described above with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 respectively. Theenterprise resources 712 may correspond to the enterprise resources 504and 608 as well as the enterprise services 508 and 609 as also describedabove with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 respectively. Once validated,authenticated, and authorized, mobile applications may access theenterprise resources 712 via the access gateway 710 as described above.

Both managed mobile applications 720 as well as unmanaged mobileapplications 722 may reside at the mobile device 704. An access managerapplication 724 may also reside at the mobile device 704 and manageexecution of the managed mobile applications 720 on the mobile device. Amobile device that includes both managed and unmanaged mobileapplications may be referred to as an unmanaged mobile device as anenterprise may only be equipped to exercise control over the managedmobile applications at that mobile device and may not be equipped toexercise control over other aspects of the mobile device, e.g., theunmanaged applications. Because the mobile device 704 includes a managedmobile application 720 and unmanaged mobile applications 722, the mobiledevice shown by way of example in FIG. 7 may be referred to as anunmanaged mobile device and may represent the personal mobile device ofan individual.

The access manager application 724 (“access manager”) may be similar inmany respects to the Receiver 604 discussed above with reference to FIG.6. As discussed further below, the access manager 724 may manage userauthentication, validation of mobile application identity, andenforcement of mobile application policies. A user may access theenterprise application server 708 (e.g., via a web browser) to initiallydownload and install the access manager 724 at the mobile device 704. Asnoted above, the access manager 724 may also serve as the interface tothe enterprise application server 708 enabling a user to browse,download, and install the mobile applications available from theenterprise system 702.

When the user downloads a managed mobile application 720 to the mobiledevice 704, the access manager 724 may also download the applicationmetadata 718 associated with the managed mobile application 720 as wellas any application policies 716 associated with the managed mobileapplication. As noted above, the access manager 724 may receive theapplication metadata 718 for a mobile application 720 from theenterprise application server 708. In some example implementations, theaccess manager 724 may store the application metadata 718 and theapplication policies 716 at a secure location of the mobile device 704,e.g., the secure data container 528 of FIG. 5 and/or the secure datavaults 616 of FIG. 6.

The access manager 724 may also maintain a list 726 of managed mobileapplications currently installed at the mobile device 704 and undermanagement of the access manager. Upon installation of a new managedmobile application, the access manager 724 may add a new entry to themanaged mobile application list 726. The new entry in the list 726 maycorrespond to the new managed mobile application installed at the mobiledevice 704.

As noted above, the access manager 724 may be configured to validate theidentity of the managed mobile application 720, e.g., to ensure that themanaged mobile application has accurately identified itself and/or toensure that the managed mobile application has not been altered afterinstallation at the mobile device 704. The access manager may rely onidentification information 728 included in the application metadata 718to validate the identity of the managed mobile application 720. In someexample embodiments, the access manager 724 may rely on the mobileplatform on which the managed mobile application 720 is operating inorder to validate the identity of the managed mobile application. Theoperating system of the mobile platform may produce identificationinformation that the access manager 724 may compare to storedidentification information for the managed mobile application. If thestored identification information matches the identification informationreceived from the operating system, then the access manager 724 mayidentify the managed mobile application 720 as a trusted mobileapplication and grant access to the enterprise resources 712. If thestored identification information for the managed mobile applicationdoes not match the identification information received from theoperating system, then the access manager 724 may identify the managedmobile application 720 as a suspicious or untrustworthy mobileapplication and deny access to the enterprise resources 712. As notedabove, the access manager 724 may also grant or deny access to localcomputing resources at the mobile device 704 itself. Local computingresources at the mobile device 704 may include, for example, a camera orother recording hardware; location services such as GPS, networkservices such as cellular or internet services, communication servicessuch as Bluetooth, interface commands such as the cut-and-paste andscreenshot features.

In other example embodiments, the access manager 724 may challenge themanaged mobile application 720 to identify itself. The access manager724 may issue a challenge request to the managed mobile application 720and determine an expected challenge response. The expected challengeresponse is a response that is expected to be received from a managedmobile application that has accurately identified itself and that hasnot been altered. As explained further below, only a mobile applicationthat has accurately identified itself and has not been altered may beable to produce the expected challenged response. If the responsereceived from the managed mobile application 720 matches the expectedresponse, then the access manager 724 may identify the managed mobileapplication 720 as a trusted mobile application. Having identified themanaged mobile application 720 as a trusted mobile application, theaccess manager may provide the managed mobile application with thecredentials necessary to access the enterprise resources 712. If theresponse received from the managed mobile application 720 does not matchthe expected response, then the access manager may identify the managedmobile application as a suspicious or untrustworthy mobile applicationand deny access to the enterprise resources 712. Again, the accessmanager 724 may grant or deny access to local computing resources at themobile device 704 depending on whether the response received from themanaged mobile application 720 matches the expected response.

The expected response may be based, at least in part, on theidentification information 728 included in the application metadata 718that is associated with the managed mobile application 720. Theidentification information may be created when the mobile applicationitself is created. The identification information may be, for example,an original digital certificate or original information that may be usedto generate an application signature. The expected response may thusinclude or otherwise correspond to the identification information 728.As explained further below, a mobile application that submits a falseidentity or a mobile application that has been subsequently altered isunable to generate the expected response and thus unable to gain accessto the computing resources.

Various approaches may be selectively employed to validate the identityof a managed mobile application. The particular approach ultimatelyimplemented may depend on the mobile platform and operating system ofthe mobile device 704. For example, the Android operating systemavailable from Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. may includemechanisms through which the access manager may strongly identify amobile application requesting access to computing resources. Thoseskilled in the art will recognize that the Android operating system mayinclude built-in mechanisms for requesting the signing certificate of anapplication, which the access manager 724 may utilize to validate theidentity of a managed mobile application requesting access to thecomputing resources such as enterprise resources 712. It will also berecognized that the Android operating system may prevent an applicationfrom being altered after installation and may prevent a mobileapplication from using a signing certificate created for a differentmobile application. In this way, the access manager 724 may rely on thesigning certificates provided by the operating system of the mobileplatform in order to validate the identity of a managed mobileapplication. Validation of application identity using signingcertificates will be discussed in further detail below.

Other operating systems, however, may not include built-in mechanismsthe access manager 724 may rely on to validate the identity of a managedmobile application requesting access to the computing resources. Forexample, the iOS operating system available from Apple Inc. ofCupertino, Calif. may not include mechanisms to request a signingcertificate for the managed mobile application. In addition, the methodsavailable for inter-process communication in iOS, may not includemechanisms to validate the identity of the mobile applications at eachend of the communication. Mobile applications operating on the iOSplatform may exchange communications, for example, via a copy-and-pasteprocedure, via an agreed to URL scheme, or via the network.

In some example implementations, the access manager 724 and the managedmobile application 720 may be configured to communicate via the network,e.g., via the transmission control protocol (TCP). In this example, theaccess manager 724 may open a TCP socket and wait to receive aconnection request from the managed mobile application 720. It will beappreciated, however, that TCP does not include a mechanism to identifythe managed mobile application requesting the connection to the accessmanager 724. Because the iOS platform may not include a mechanism toobtain a signing certificate for the mobile application making therequest, additional steps may be employed to validate the identity ofthe requesting mobile application. Instead of relying on a signingcertificate, the access manager 724 in this example, may rely, at leastin part, on identification information 732 embedded in and/or derivedfrom the managed mobile application 720 as set forth below.

The wrapping process discussed above may configure a mobile applicationto operate as a managed mobile application. In this regard, the wrappingprocess may include (e.g., insert, embed, wrap, etc.) a managementframework 730 in the managed mobile application 720. The managementframework 730 may correspond to the secure application wrapper 120 andthe management framework 614 discussed above with reference to FIG. 5and FIG. 6 respectively. The management framework 730 enables the accessmanager 724 to manage the operation of the mobile application 720 asdiscussed above with reference to FIG. 6.

The managed mobile application 720 may also employ the managementframework 730 to identify itself to the access manager 724. Inparticular, the management framework 730 may generate the response tothe challenge posed by the access manager 724 during the identityvalidation procedure.

In some example implementations, the management framework 730 of themanaged mobile application 720 may be configured to generate anapplication signature. The management framework 730 may also beconfigured to provide a challenge response that is based, at least inpart, on this application signature. The application signature may inturn be based on identification information 732 embedded in and/orderived from the managed mobile application 720. Stated differently, themanagement framework 730 may generate an application signature based onstatic information and dynamic information associated with the managedmobile application 720.

The static information may be secret information that is embedded intothe managed mobile application 720 during the wrapping process describedabove. For example, the secret information may include one or moreidentification tokens 734 embedded into the application during thewrapping process. The identification tokens 734 may be, e.g., randomizedalphanumeric strings embedded into the binary of the managed mobileapplication 720. The management framework 730 may be configured toextract the identification tokens 734 when constructing the applicationsignature in order to respond to the challenge received from the accessmanager 724.

The dynamic information may be identification tokens derived from themanaged mobile application 720. For example, the derived identificationtokens may be hash values obtained using selective hash functions on thevarious components of the mobile application bundle, e.g., the mobileapplication binary, application icon, application frameworks, and thelike. The access manager 724 may derive this dynamic identificationinformation in an ad hoc fashion during the identity validationprocedure. One or more selective hash functions may be used to generateone or more selective hash values that represent the derivedidentification tokens. The access manager may utilize the managementframework 730 to help derive the dynamic identification information fromthe managed mobile application 720 as needed.

The management framework 730 may also be configured to construct theapplication signature used in the response to the challenge receivedfrom the access manager 724. The application signature may comprise acombination of the static information extracted from the managed mobileapplication 720 as well as the dynamic information derived from themanaged mobile application. The management framework 730 may further beconfigured to arrange the static information and the dynamic informationwithin the application signature in a particular way. Thus, strongidentification of the managed mobile application 720 may be achievedthrough the static information embedded in the managed mobileapplication, the dynamic information derived from the mobileapplication, and the arrangement of the static and dynamic informationwithin the application signature.

As noted above, the access manager 724 may be configured to generate anexpected response when challenging the managed mobile application 720.Accordingly, the access manager 724 may likewise be configured toconstruct an expected application signature. The access manager 724 mayconstruct the expected application signature based on the identificationinformation 728 included in the application metadata 718 for the managedmobile application 720. The access manager may also be configured todynamically derive the dynamic information from the managed mobileapplication 720. Furthermore, the access manager 724 may likewise beconfigured to arrange the static and dynamic information within theexpected application signature in a particular way.

In order to guard against replay attacks, the access manager 724 mayprovide a nonce (e.g., an arbitrary and random number) to the managedmobile application 720 for use in the response to the challenge. Theaccess manager 724 may hash the nonce with the expected applicationsignature to obtain an expected hash value. Similarly, the managementframework 730 of the managed mobile application may hash the applicationsignature with the received nonce to obtain a response hash value. Inresponse to the challenge from the access manager 724, the managedmobile application 720 may thus provide the access manager with thecomputed hash value obtained from the application signature and thenonce received from the access manager. The access manager may thuscompare the expected hash value to the received hash value. The accessmanager 724 may thus identify the managed mobile application 720 as atrusted mobile application when the expected hash value matches thereceived hash value.

With reference to FIG. 8 a block diagram of an illustrative applicationsignature and challenge response is shown. As noted above, a managedmobile application 800 may generate an application signature 802 inresponse to a challenge from an access manager 804. The applicationsignature 802 may include identification tokens 806 embedded in themanaged mobile application 800 as well as identification tokens 808derived from the managed mobile application. As seen in FIG. 8, themanaged mobile application 800 may arrange the embedded identificationtokens 806 and the derived identification tokens 808 in a particular waywithin the application signature 802. As an example, the managed mobileapplication 800 may concatenate the embedded identification tokens 806and the derived identification tokens 808 in a particular order toconstruct the application signature. In another example, the managedmobile application 800 may concatenate portions of the embeddedidentification tokens 806 and portions of the derived identificationtokens 808 to construct the application signature. It will beappreciated that various approaches to constructing the applicationsignature may be selectively employed. As also noted above, the accessmanager 804 may provide a nonce 810 to the managed mobile application800. The managed mobile application 800 may employ a hash function 812to generate a hash value 814 based on the application signature 802 andthe nonce 810. The managed mobile application 800 may provide the hashvalue 814 to the access manager 802 in the response 816 to the challengereceived.

To validate the identity of the managed mobile application 800, theaccess manager 804 may construct an expected application signature 818based on the identification tokens 820 stored with the applicationmetadata 822 and identification tokens 808 derived from the managedmobile application. The access manager 804 may also employ the hashfunction 812 to generate an expected hash value 824 based on theidentification tokens 820 from the application metadata 822 and thenonce 810. In response to the challenge, the access manager 804 mayreceive the challenge response 816 and compare the hash value 814 in thechallenge response with the expected hash value 824.

With the benefit of the present disclosure, it will be appreciated thatonly an unaltered mobile application received from the enterpriseapplication server (708 in FIG. 7) may generate the expected hash value824. It will also be appreciated that the expected application signature818 may not be stored persistently at the mobile device, but ratherreconstructed as needed to verify the identity of the mobile application800 requesting access to computing resources. The approach set forthabove thus represents a mechanism to strongly identify a mobileapplication in order to determine whether to grant or deny the mobileapplication access to computing resources.

FIGS. 9-14 depict example methods steps related to aspects of validatingthe identity of a managed mobile application, enforcing applicationpolicies once validated, and controlling operation of the managed mobileapplications.

In FIG. 9, a flowchart 900 of example method steps for managing a mobileapplication at an unmanaged mobile device is shown. An enterprise maycreate a managed mobile application configured to operate at a mobiledevice (e.g., an unmanaged mobile device) and configured to accesscomputing resources from the mobile device (block 902). The enterprisemay also configure the managed mobile application to be managed by anaccess manager application at the mobile device. As noted above, theenterprise may wrap or otherwise include a management framework (e.g.,the MDX framework) that enables the access manager to validate theidentity of the managed mobile application and control operation of themanaged mobile application.

Upon creation of the managed mobile application, the enterprise may alsocreate identification information associated with the managed mobileapplication (block 904). The identification information may be, forexample, a signed application certificate and/or application metadatathat includes identification tokens. The identification tokens may beembedded into the managed mobile application (e.g., into the applicationbinary) in some example implementations. A user may download and installthe access manager at a mobile device (block 906). The access managermay provide the user with an interface from which to browse theenterprise application server (e.g., the enterprise application store)and select various managed mobile applications to download to the mobiledevice. The access manager may require the user to provide accesscredentials in order to logon to the enterprise application server. Theuser may be associated with a user profile, and the user profile may beassociated with various rights and entitlements. In this way, themanaged mobile applications presented to the user as available todownload depend upon the rights and entitlements assigned to the user,e.g., the enterprise application server may only present managed mobileapplications that the user is entitled to use.

Having selected a managed mobile application, the user may download themobile application via the access managed and install the mobileapplication at the mobile device (block 908). The enterprise applicationserver may also provide the identification information associated withthe mobile application as well as an access policy associated with themobile application. Accordingly, when the user downloads and installs amanaged mobile application, the access manager may also download andstore the identification information (block 910) and the applicationpolicy (block 912) associated with the mobile application.

Having installed the mobile application at the mobile device, the usermay utilize the mobile application to access a computing resource. Whenthe mobile application seeks to access the computing resource, themobile application may check-in with the access manager and requestaccess to the resource (block 914). Upon receipt of the request toaccess the computing resource, the access manager may retrieve theidentification information received from the enterprise applicationserver and stored at the mobile device (block 916). The access managermay also receive identification information from the mobile operatingsystem, e.g., a signed application certification, or from the mobileapplication itself, e.g., a hash value based, at least in part, on anapplication signature (block 918).

The access manager may then compare the stored identificationinformation to the received identification information (block 920). Ifthe received identification information matches the storedidentification information (block 922:Y), then the access manager maydetermine that the mobile application is valid and identify the mobileapplication as a trusted mobile application. Accordingly, the accessmanager may permit the managed mobile application to access thecomputing resource (block 924). The access manager may, for example,provide the mobile application with the access credentials,certificates, keys, and the like necessary to establish a connectionwith and access an enterprise resource. In some example implementations,the application policy associated with the mobile application maydetermine the manner in which the mobile application accesses and usesthe computing resource. If the received identification information doesnot match the stored identification information (block 924:N), then theaccess manager may determine that the mobile application is invalid andnot identify the mobile application as a trust mobile application andthus prevent the mobile application from accessing the computingresource (block 926).

In FIG. 10 is a flowchart 1000 of example method steps for preparing amanaged mobile application for managed operation at an unmanaged mobiledevice. As noted above, some mobile operating systems may not providebuilt-in mechanisms the access manager may employ to validate theidentity of the mobile application. Accordingly, the mobile applicationmay be configured such that it can strongly identify itself. Theenterprise may use a toolkit to prepare a mobile application as amanaged mobile application (block 1002). The toolkit may addfunctionality (e.g., the MDX framework) that transforms the mobileapplication into a managed mobile application (block 1004). The toolkitmay also generate and embed identification tokens (e.g., randomizedstrings) into the managed mobile application (block 1006). Thefunctionality added to the managed mobile application may includefunctionality that enables the managed mobile application to extract,arrange, and combine the embedded identification tokens in order toconstruct an application signature. The functionality added to themanaged mobile application may also include functionality that enablesthe managed mobile application to derive identification tokensdynamically as well as to arrange and combine the derived identificationtokens with the embedded identification tokens when constructing theapplication signature. Furthermore, the functionality added to themanaged mobile application may additionally include functionality thatenables the managed mobile application to generate a hash value based,at least in part, on the application signature.

The toolkit may also generate application metadata for the managedmobile application that includes the identification tokens embedded intothe mobile application (block 1008). The enterprise may then publish themanaged mobile application to the enterprise application server alongwith the application metadata and any application policies associatedwith the mobile application (block 1010). The enterprise applicationserver may receive a request from a mobile device to download a selectedmobile application (block 1012). If the access manager has not yet beeninstalled at the mobile device (block 1014:N), then the enterpriseapplication server may first download the access manager application tothe mobile device (block 1016). Once the access manager is installed atthe mobile application (block 1014:Y), the enterprise application servermay download the selected mobile application to the mobile device inresponse to receipt of the request (1018). As noted above, theenterprise application server may also download to the mobile device theapplication metadata associated with the selected mobile application forstorage at the mobile device. The access manager may have access to theapplication metadata thereby enabling the access manager to validate theidentity of the mobile application associated with the applicationmetadata.

In FIG. 11, a flowchart 1100 of example method steps for initializing amanaged mobile application at an unmanaged mobile device is shown. Whenthe mobile device is first activated and initialized (block 1102), theaccess manager application may be one of the first mobile applicationslaunched (block 1104). The access manager may, for example, launchautomatically as part of the startup process of the mobile device and/orin response to user input received at the mobile device. When the accessmanager application launches, the access manager may request accesscredentials (e.g., a username and password) from the user (block 1106).The access manager may then provide the access credentials to theenterprise server for authentication (block 1108). If the enterpriseserver does not authenticate the user (block 1110:N), then the accessmanager may prevent any managed mobile applications at the mobile devicefrom accessing the computing resources (block 1112). For example, theaccess manager may refrain from providing mobile applications the accesscredentials necessary to establish connections with the enterpriseresources.

If the enterprise server does authenticate the user (block 1110:Y), thenthe enterprise server may validate the identity of the access manageritself (block 1114) in order to ensure that the access managerapplication has not been altered. The enterprise server may validate theidentity of the access manager in the same manner as the managed mobileapplication. As an example, a signing certificate used to sign theaccess manager may be employed to validate the access managerapplication. For example, the enterprise system may validate the managedmobile application. If the access manager is not validated (block1116:N), then the management framework of the managed mobileapplications may treat the access manager as missing from the mobiledevice, and the managed mobile applications may thus be prevented fromaccessing the computing resources (block 1112).

If the enterprise server does validate the identity of the accessmanager application (block 1116:Y), then a managed mobile applicationmay be initiated (block 1118). Upon launch as well as during operation,the mobile application may check-in with the access manager so that theaccess manager may validate the identity of the managed mobileapplication (block 1120). If the access manager cannot validate theidentity of the managed mobile application (block 1122:N), then theaccess manager may prevent the managed mobile application from accessingthe computing resources (block 1124). If the access manager successfullyvalidates the identity of the managed mobile application (block 1122:Y),then the access manager may identify the managed mobile application as atrusted mobile application (block 1126). If the managed mobileapplication has just launched at the mobile device, then the accessmanager may update the list of mobile applications managed by the accessmanager to include the trusted mobile application (block 1128). Havingvalidated the identity of the managed mobile application, the accessmanager may also permit the trusted mobile application to access thecomputing resources (block 1130).

In FIG. 12, is a flowchart 1200 of example method steps for validating amanaged mobile application at an unmanaged mobile device having a firsttype of mobile operating system is shown. The mobile operating system,in this example, may not include built-in mechanisms the access managermay utilize to validate the identity of a mobile application. The accessmanager may receive a request from a managed mobile application seekingto access a computing resource (block 1202). Upon receipt of therequest, the access manager may initiate a handshake with the managedmobile application to start the identity validation process (block1204). The managed mobile application may identify itself to the accessmanager, e.g., by providing a unique application identifier to theaccess manager (block 1206). In turn, the access manager may utilize theapplication identifier to retrieve the application metadata associatedwith the mobile application (block 1208). The access manager may alsogenerate a nonce and provide the nonce to the mobile application (block1210).

The access manager and the managed mobile application may then begin theprocess of constructing the application signature and corresponding hashvalue used to validate the identity of the mobile application anddetermine whether the mobile application is a trusted mobileapplication. The mobile application may extract the embeddedidentification tokens (block 1212) and derive the derived identificationtokens (block 1214) used to construct the application signature. Themobile application may then arrange and combine the embeddedidentification tokens extracted and the derived identification tokens toobtain the application signature (block 1216). The mobile applicationmay then compute a hash value using the application signature and thenonce received from the access manager (block 1218).

Having provided the nonce to the mobile application, the access managermay retrieve the embedded identification tokens from the applicationmetadata associated with the mobile application (block 1220). The accessmanager may similarly derive the derived identification tokens from themobile application (block 1222) used to construct the expectedapplication signature. The access manager may then arrange and combinethe embedded identification tokens retrieved from the applicationmetadata and the derived identification tokens to obtain the expectedapplication signature (block 1224). The access manager may then computean expected hash value using the expected application signature and thenonce provided to the mobile application (block 1226).

It will be appreciated that the hash value computed by the accessmanager should be the same as the hash value computed by the mobileapplication if the embedded identification tokens retrieved from theapplication metadata are the same as the embedded identification tokensextracted from the mobile application; if the identification tokensderived by the access manager are the same as the identification tokensderived by the mobile; if the expected application signature constructedby the access manager is the same as the application signatureconstructed by the mobile application; and if the mobile applicationuses the nonce provided by the access manager to compute the hash value.Accordingly, the mobile application may provide the hash value in aresponse to the access manager (block 1228), and the access manager maycompare the expected hash value to the value received from the mobileapplication (block 1230). If the expected hash value does not match thereceived hash value (block 1232:N), then the access manager maydetermine that the mobile application has falsely identified itself, hasbeen altered after installation at the mobile device, and so forth. As aresult, the access manager may deny the mobile application access to thecomputing resources (block 1234). If the expected hash value matches thereceived hash value (block 1232:Y), then the access manager may identifythe mobile application as a trusted mobile application and permit thetrusted mobile application to access the computing resources (block1236).

In FIG. 13, a flowchart 1300 of example method steps for validating amanaged mobile application at an unmanaged mobile device having a secondtype of mobile operating system is shown. The mobile operating system,in this example, may include built-in mechanisms the access manager mayutilize to validate the identity of a mobile application. The accessmanager may receive a request from the managed mobile application toaccess a computing resource (block 1302). The access manager may requestfrom the mobile operating system a unique application identifier for themobile application (block 1304) and receive the application identifierin response (block 1306).

Based on the application identifier for the mobile application, theaccess manager may query the list of managed mobile applications (1308).If the list of managed mobile applications does not include the mobileapplication requesting access to the computing resource (block 1310:N),then the access manager may deny the mobile application access to theresource (block 1312). If, however, the list of managed mobileapplications does include the mobile application requesting access tothe computing resource (block 1310:Y), the access manager may thenrequest from the mobile operating system the application certificate formobile application (block 1314).

As noted above, the enterprise application server may provideapplication certificates for the mobile applications installed at mobiledevices. The application certificates may be stored at a secure storagelocation at the mobile device that is accessible by the access manager.Accordingly, the access manager may receive the requested applicationcertificate from the mobile operating system (block 1316) and retrievethe stored application certificate provided by the enterpriseapplication server (block 1318). In some example implementations, theaccess manager may compute respective hash values for each of thecertificates (step 1320), e.g., using the SHA-1 hash function. Theaccess manager may compare the hash value of the stored certificate tothe hash value of the certificate received from the mobile operatingsystem. (block 1322). If the hash values match (block 1324:Y), then theaccess manager may determine that the mobile application is a trustedmobile application and permit the mobile application to access thecomputing resources (block 1326). If the hash values do not match (block1324:N), then the access manager may determine that the mobileapplication is an untrusted mobile application and deny the mobileapplication access to the computing resources (block 1312).

In FIG. 14. a flowchart 1400 of example method steps for enforcingapplication policies during operation of a managed mobile application isshown. As noted above, the enterprise application server may provideapplication policies associated with the managed mobile applicationsinstalled at mobile devices. An enterprise may periodically update theapplication policies, and the access manager may thus be configured toensure the most recent and up-to-date application policies are stored ata mobile device before permitting a managed mobile application fromaccessing the computing resources. In this way, the enterprise may grantor revoke entitlements to applications and application functionalities.

After the access manager validates the identity of a managed mobileapplication (block 1402), the access manager may retrieve theapplication policy associated with the managed mobile application andstored at the mobile device (block 1404). The access manager may thenquery the enterprise application server for policy informationassociated with the application policy (block 1406), e.g., a policydate, a policy version number, and the like. Based on the policyinformation received from the enterprise application server, the accessmanager may determine whether the application policy stored at themobile device is current (block 1408). As an example, the access managermay compare the policy date or policy version received from theenterprise application server to the policy date or policy version ofthe application policy stored at the mobile device. If the policy dateor policy version do not match, then the access manager may determinethat the application policy stored at the mobile device is not current(block 1408:N). If the policy date or policy version do match, then theaccess manager may determine that the application policy stored at themobile device is current (block 1408:Y).

If the application policy is not current (block 1408:N), then the accessmanager may retrieve the current policy associated with the mobileapplication from the enterprise system, e.g., the enterprise applicationstore (block 1410). The access manager may download the currentapplication policy and store the current application policy at a securestorage location at the mobile device (block 1412). Once the accessmanager has obtained the current policy for the mobile application, themanaged mobile application may refer to the application policy todetermine whether it may access or use the computing resource asintended (block 1414).

The management framework, for example, may configure the managed mobileapplication to query the policy before accessing or using a computingresource. As an example, the framework may configure the managed mobileapplication to query the application policy in order to determinewhether data may be copied to another mobile application at the mobiledevice. In some example implementations, the managed mobile applicationmay only copy the data to other managed mobile applications at themobile device. As another example, the framework may configure themanaged mobile application to query the application policy in order todetermine whether the mobile device may capture a screenshot of themanaged mobile application. These and other examples will be appreciatedwith the benefit of this disclosure.

If the application policy permits the managed mobile application toaccess or use computing resource as intended (block 1416:Y), then theframework may permit the managed mobile application to carry out theintended action (block 1418). If, however, the application policy doesnot permit the managed mobile application to access or use the computingresource as intended (block 1418:N), then the framework may prevent themanaged mobile application from carrying out the intended action (block1420).

Mobile Application Management with Mobile Device Management

Although mobile application management (MAM) has been discussed in thecontext of an unmanaged device, aspects of the present disclosure mayalso be employed with respect to managed devices as well. An enterprisemay utilize mobile device management (MDM) in conjunction with mobileapplication management to further control the operation of the mobiledevice. In particular, the mobile device may enroll with an MDM systemto establish a managed relationship between the MDM system and themobile device. Once the mobile device is enrolled, the MDM system mayleverage the managed relationship to enforce policies, monitor themobile device, push information to the mobile device, and the like.

In sum, the MDM system may obtain information about the mobile devicethat would otherwise be unavailable absent the managed relationship.Such information may correspond to device-level settings that are notdiscoverable or readable through applications at the mobile device. Suchdevice-level settings may include PIN or password settings, encryptionsettings, network-related settings, and the like. Such information mayalso include information regarding the processes currently running atthe mobile device and the mobile applications installed at the mobiledevice (e.g., the application inventory). The MDM system may furtherobtain additional or alternative types of information pertaining to themanaged mobile device. The MDM system may compare the informationobtained from the managed mobile device against various policies andtake various actions in response.

With respect to a device PIN/password, the MDM system may obtaininformation that indicates whether the device is secured via aPIN/password, the complexity of the PIN/password, and the age of thePIN/password. Through the managed relationship, the MDM system mayobtain information regarding the PIN/password settings of the device.The MDM system may compare this information to policies governing theuse of device PINs/passwords. As an example, if a security policyindicates that the mobile device must be secured by a PIN/password andthe information obtained from the mobile device indicates that thedevice PIN/password setting is not enabled, then the MDM system may pushnotifications to the managed mobile device indicating the securitypolicy regarding device PINs/passwords. As another example, if the MDMsystem determines that the device PIN/password does not meet thecomplexity requirements of the security policy, then the MDM system maylikewise push a notification to the managed mobile device indicatingthat a new, more complex PIN/password is required to comply with thesecurity policy. As a further example, if the security policy indicatesthat device PINs/passwords must be changed periodically, then the MDMsystem may push a notification to the managed mobile device indicatingthe need to change the device PIN/password upon determining that thecurrent device PIN/password has expired.

With respect to encryption settings, the MDM system may also obtaininformation that indicates whether the device has hardware encryptionenabled. Through the managed relationship, the MDM system may enablehardware encryption at the managed mobile device upon determining that asecurity policy requires hardware encryption and that hardwareencryption is not currently enabled at the mobile device. The MDM systemmay also set network-related settings at the managed mobile devicethrough the managed relationship.

The MDM system may additionally obtain information regarding theprocesses currently running at the managed mobile device. The MDM systemmay compare the running processes against a list of maliciousapplications, programs, or processes in order to identify, e.g., malwareat the managed mobile device. Through the managed relationship, the MDMsystem may kill any processes identified as malware or potentiallymalicious. The MDM system may also remove the corresponding maliciousapplications or programs through the managed relationship with themobile device.

Similarly, the MDM system may obtain a list of applications installed atthe managed mobile device. The MDM system may compare the list ofinstalled applications to, e.g., an application whitelist or anapplication blacklist. The application whitelist may be a list of mobileapplications permitted to be installed at the mobile device. If the listof installed applications includes an application that does not appearon the mobile application whitelist, then the MDM system may leveragethe managed relationship to remove the application. The applicationblacklist may be a list of mobile applications prohibited from beinginstalled at the mobile device. If the list of installed applicationsincludes an application that appears on the mobile applicationblacklist, then the MDM system may similarly leverage the managedrelationship to remove the application. It will be appreciated that theMDM system may additionally leverage the managed relationship to pushmobile applications to the managed mobile device in order to controlwhich mobile applications are installed at the mobile device. In view ofthis disclosure, it will also be appreciated that the MDM system mayexert more robust control over the mobile applications installed at themobile device. As described above, MAM may disable a mobile applicationinstalled at the mobile device upon determination that the applicationviolates a policy. When MDM is used in conjunction with MAM, however,the mobile application may not only be disabled, it may be removedentirely from the mobile device. The MDM system may push other types ofinformation to the managed mobile device. For example, the MDM systemmay leverage the managed relationship to push application updates orcertificates to the mobile device. The certificates may be, e.g., X.509device certificates.

The disclosures provided in this disclosure provide a number oftechnical advantages. In general, the approaches set forth above enablean enterprise to securely and strongly identify a mobile applicationregardless of mobile platform. The approaches set forth above alsoprovide an automated way to verify the identity of mobile applicationsaccessing potentially sensitive data such as authentication credentials,digital certificates, enterprise data, and the like. An enterpriseimplementing the approaches set forth above may also reduce the numberof physical devices under its management by allowing individuals to usetheir personal devices to access enterprise resources. In this regard,an enterprise may avoid having to enroll an entire device into a mobiledevice management system, and may instead only enroll various mobileapplications at a mobile device in a mobile application managementsystem. These and other advantages will be appreciated with the benefitof the disclosures provided above.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are described asexample implementations of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:installing an application at a first location of a computing device, atleast one token being embedded in the application; storing, at a secondlocation of the computing device and separately from the application,application metadata comprising at least one corresponding token,wherein each of the at least one corresponding token corresponds to oneof the at least one token embedded in the application; challenging theapplication to provide a response prior to granting the applicationaccess to a computing resource; obtaining the at least one correspondingtoken from the application metadata stored at the computing device;generating an expected response that is based, at least in part, on theat least one corresponding token obtained from the application metadata;comparing the expected response to the response received from theapplication; and either granting or denying the application access tothe computing resource based on whether the expected response matchesthe response received.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein: challenging the application to provide the response compriseschallenging the application responsive to receipt, from the application,of a request to access the computing resource.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: challenging theapplication to provide the response comprises challenging theapplication responsive to a launch of the application at the computingdevice.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:generating the expected response comprises generating an expectedapplication signature for the application.
 5. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 4, wherein: generating the expected applicationsignature further comprises obtaining at least one first correspondingtoken from the application metadata.
 6. The computer-implemented methodof claim 5, wherein: generating the expected application signaturefurther comprises deriving at least one second token from theapplication.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein:deriving the at least one second token comprises hashing a component ofthe application.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein:the component comprises one of a binary of the application, an icon ofthe application, or a framework of the application.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein: generating the expectedapplication signature further comprises arranging, in a predeterminedorder, the at least one first corresponding token and the at least onesecond token.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, furthercomprising: providing a nonce to the application; wherein generating theexpected response further comprises generating an expected hash valuebased on the application signature and the nonce; and wherein comparingthe expected response to the response received from the applicationcomprises comparing the expected hash value to a hash value receivedfrom the application.
 11. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, at an application installed at a first location of acomputing device, a challenge to provide a response prior to obtainingaccess to a computing resource; generating, by the application, aresponse that is based, at least in part, on a token embedded in theapplication; providing, by the application, the response for comparisonto an expected response that has been generated based, at least in part,on a corresponding token obtained from application metadata stored at asecond location of the computing device separately from the applicationinstalled at the computing device, wherein the corresponding tokenobtained from the application metadata corresponds to the token embeddedin the application; and obtaining, by the application, access to thecomputing resource responsive to a determination that the expectedresponse matches the response provided by the application.
 12. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein: generating theresponse comprises generating, by the application, an applicationsignature.
 13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein:generating the application signature comprises extracting, by theapplication, the token embedded in the application.
 14. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein: generating theapplication signature comprises deriving at least one second token fromthe application.
 15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14wherein: deriving the at least one second token comprises hashing acomponent of the application; and the component comprises one of abinary of the application, an icon of the application, or a framework ofthe application.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14,wherein: generating the application signature comprises arranging, in apredetermined order, the token extracted from the application and atleast one of the second tokens.
 17. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 12, further comprising: receiving a nonce; and wherein generatingthe response further comprises generating a hash value based on theapplication signature and the nonce; and wherein providing the responsefor comparison to the expected response comprises providing the hashvalue to an expected hash value.
 18. A computer-implemented methodcomprising: embedding a token in an application; providing, to acomputing device for storage at a first location of the computingdevice, application metadata comprising a corresponding token thatcorresponds to the token embedded in the application; including, in theapplication, a management framework that configures the application to:(i) generate, in response to receiving a challenge, a response that isbased, at least in part, on the token embedded in the application, and(ii) provide the response for comparison to an expected response thathas been generated at the computing device based, at least in part, thecorresponding token that has been obtained from the application metadatastored at the computing device; and providing the application to thecomputing device for installation at a second location of the computingdevice and separately from the application metadata.
 19. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein: the managementframework configures the application to generate the response bygenerating an application signature based, at least in part, on thetoken embedded in the application.
 20. The computer-implemented methodof claim 19, wherein: the management framework configures theapplication to generate the application signature by extracting thetoken embedded in the application and arranging, in a predeterminedorder, the token extracted from the application and at least one secondtoken derived from the application.